Tag: morning

I have an issue with creating a morning routine that meets all of the criteria I have for starting the day off right; there are too many things to do and too little time. Given my particular leanings, morning is the best time for me to accomplish several tasks, most of which are too time consuming to do all of them in the morning. This doesn’t even take into account a morning hygiene routine, which we’ll come back to later. These are the things I would like to do in the morning:

Bible study/prayer/worship

write

edits/revisions

critique chapters for my critique partners

finish reading books to review

write reviews

Wrangle with writing synopses and query letters.

CLEAN

do laundry

exercise

use my crockpot to start dinner.

shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, fix my hair

fix or go get breakfast.

catch up on social media.

post to social media.

write blog posts.

work on improvements to my websites.

Look for cool things to bring to my blogs and sites.

Try to figure out how the heck to build my brand.

catch up on Netflix

light scented candle, put on classical music, and just exist for a few minutes

I have two hours in the morning to get everything done except getting showered and dressed, which I leave about half an hour to forty-five minutes for (I’m not a fussy girl, apparently). I’m sure you can imagine how getting into any of the above tasks can bleed over into my getting dressed time, especially if I’m in a groove. There’s just not enough morning in my days.

I know you’re probably thinking I could shove some of these things into the evening, and I always have plans to accomplish so much when I get home. But when I get home, I am exhausted both from the early start and the hard day at work. Depending on the time of the month, I am drowning in invoices and reports. The last thing I want to do is come home and take laundry to the laundry center (it might be different if there was a washer and dryer in the apartment) or wash a sink full of dishes. I have much more energy in the morning.

So how does one solve this dilemma? If I could spend a few days just cleaning everything in sight and catching up on all of the things I need to do, I could do one or two things each morning going forward. At the moment, however, there’s just an overwhelming amount of things to do. I tried doing one cleaning thing, one writing thing, and bible study each day, but the area would be during again before I had another area finished, and the critiques would be due and it’d be time to swap more chapters, so I had to drop everything and do that, then I needed to… I can’t seem to get any traction.

The short version of this post: I am incapable of doing all the things I am better at tackling in the morning in the two and a half hours I have before work and I need suggestions on how to start making inroads into it. Seriously. I really want to get serious about this morning routine, but right now I am all over the place. Help!!

When I wake up in the morning, I am a mess. My hair is sticking out in every direction. My sleepwear is bunched up in uncomfortable places. There is crust in my eyes and maybe the dried crust of a trickle of saliva running along one cheek if I’ve had a good sleep. There are creases on one side of my face. A limb that was slept on wrong is asleep and shoots tiny pinpricks of pain up an arm of leg when I try to use it. My neck has a crook in it. I can barely see. Not to mention the non-physical effects: I am a bit fuzzy. Sometimes I don’t know where I am for a moment or two. I can be startled by the alarm clock and nearly jump out of my skin. I am trying to make sense of a half remembered piece of a dream. “Why was there crap stuffed down my throat that I was trying to shovel out with my fingers?” (This scatological nightmare will be revisited later). I am good for nothing until I’ve completed my first morning ritual. For me, this includes going to the bathroom, checking twitter, and having a glass of soda (pop). Maybe you go to the bathroom, drink a cup of coffee, make your bed, or wash your face. Maybe you start off your day with a prayer. Once you get the ball rolling for the first few minutes, once you can come to yourself, then you can begin the task of getting yourself into an acceptable condition in which to interact with the world.

But let’s stay with you, au naturel, just waking up–when you stretch, rub your eyes; scratch something, just before you start your day; in those quiet moments when you are coming to yourself, who are you?We all have different roles that we have to play. Some of us are students; others are workers. Some of us are wives, mothers, sisters, friends, bosses, colleagues, fellow church members, and/or a fellow train or bus rider on the way to work. But who are we really?

When I was in high school, my ethics teacher taught this annoying exercise where we had to answer this question. There didn’t seem to be an appropriate answer. If you said you were a Christian, he said “That’s your religion.” If you said you were Italian, he said “that’s your nationality.” If you said you were a student, a republican, a fun loving person, a boxer, or a chain smoker, your answer was similarly wrong. I don’t know if we ever agreed to anything. While this annoyed everyone, it did serve to help us realize that the things that we put such stock in aren’t really “us.” There are so many things that make up who we are, it’s very difficult to sum us up with just one descriptive word.

I won’t attempt to make you do that, but I think it’s something to consider. I think that the fact that I am a Christian says a lot about me. Knowing that, there are certain things you would expect of me, some which are erroneous and some which are understood to be the characteristics of a Christian. However, it doesn’t tell you everything about me. Am I funny? Do I sing loud in my car? What’s my favorite color? Do I like children? What bad habit do I have that I want to break? How did I get that scar above my eyebrow?

Without factoring in anything you are for or to anybody else, I want you to tell me who you are. Who is the naked you? You can include whatever you want—except a picture of yourself nude. I want you to define yourself for yourself. BUT whatever you write, you have to include something that leaves you a little bit naked, a little exposed. It may be helpful for you to describe you morning routine. What are the first thoughts that you think each day?

Don’t forget to put one thing you like about yourself, your empowering song for the day (or painting, or whatever you’ve decided to use) and one thing you are grateful for in this entry. Also, if you feel comfortable, include a horrible bathroom picture of yourself so we can put a face to your posts.